Jim Linderman blog about surface, wear, form and authenticity in self-taught art, outsider art, antique american folk art, antiques and photography. Dull tool and dim bulb were the only swear words my father ever used. Items from the Jim Linderman collection of vernacular photography, folk art, ephemera and curiosities. (Note: if anyone believes an image contained violates their rights or insults their intelligence, simply point it out and I will remove)

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Grab your ape hangers and hit the big slab! We don't need no skid lid brain bucket, just jack the jiffy, mount, blip, crack and catwalk. These sleds are pure NBD and they show it...just check the skin! Any one of the would blow any pasta or rice rocket, and if the pussies even TRY to SQUID, they'll sparkle the pavement and surf. Thrash it, but avoid static, and above all stay vertical, Angel. Keep the dirty side down.

Well...since this blog is all about authenticity, be it in art, photography or culture...I feel it is my resposibility to share these rare DATED 1964 Kodachrome photographs. This is the first of three posts.

Bottle Farms are traditionally understood as an African-American phenom imbued with spiritual baggage from Africa. Could be...however, they are also a documented Caucasian practice. This is also my nomination for the oddest official historical marker in the country. See if you agree. Text of Roadside Marker follows:

A direct descendant of original settlers in Jackson Township, Winter Zellar (Zero) Swartsel was born in 1876. Throughout his life he was a natural born showman, teacher, eccentric, anarchist, and “possibly the grandfather of American Pop Culture.” At a young age and tired of the routines of Farmersville, he declared that, “He would live by his wits while his brothers lived by the sweat of their brows.” He and a friend bicycled first to New York City and then turned around to head west and eventually the world. Later his home would overflow with items collected while traveling the world. Outside was a similar story. While chiding the American people for their wastefulness and abusing their environment, his 22 acres of farmland became his artist's canvas filled with the thousands of items he collected from the “wasteful.” Winter Zellar (Zero) Swartsel's farm property became a field of glass as he adorned it with sculptures and “art” using glassware of all kinds, bells, bed frames, wood, and other discarded items. His finest works, fashioned from bottles titled “Kindly Light” and “Full Measure” created the popular Farmersville Bottle Farm. The farm also provided interesting listening experiences. In addition to the bells and twinkling glass that rang out in the wind, residents in town could count on hearing “The Old Rugged Cross” played on loud speakers on Sundays. Bells on grazing sheep added to the “noises” he described as restful. The farm attracted visitors from every state in the nation except Delaware. Dying in 1953, Swartsel bequeathed his land to the community to become the Farmersville-Jackson Township Joint Recreation Park to be used for the pleasure of children.

A plethora of anachronisms in the description of Alex "Dummy" Miller, but I suppose "convicted murderer" makes the out-of-date descriptions of "deaf, dumb and mute" superfluous. Not that any group of impaired persons seem likely to claim him as their own anyway. He was found guilty of murdering Adam Shank, his wife and their four small children in 1923. Mr. Miller was "a deaf mute and cannot read or write, or use the deaf mute finger manual" according to the caption. I looked him up...farm hand, dispute over wages, gunshots.

"When the preacher wishes to stop the dancing he has a big bell which he rings. But sometimes it fails; the spirit has too much of a hold upon them and all the ringing in the world wouldn't stop --- so it just winds up in the bell being rung in a rhytmatic (sic) manner and the spirit emotions overcome the preachers who too begin dancing"

John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen" is a raw, unvarnished ramped up electric rave and though he hailed from the Delta, Detroit proudly claims him as their own. He moved to the Motor City in the late 1940's and recreated the sound of the pounding auto plants with a dash of Mississipi wired up with electric watts. For 50 years his earliest recordings were thought to be the jazzed up sides cut by Elmer Barbee in Detroit. A year later, Joe Bessman recorded "Boogie Chillen" which was yesterday named as a historic recording worthy of the nation's highest sound honor. Hooker went on to ignore contracts and record under a dozen names for every label which would pay him fifty bucks, including Texas Slim, Delta Sam, Birmingham Sam, John Lee Booker, Johnny Hooker, John Cooker, Johnny Williams and Little Pork Chop. Clever, that young John Lee.

However, the story takes a curious twist. Gene Deitch, a Czech Academy-Award winning illustrator and under appreciated cartoonist, creator of Krazy Kat, Tom Terrific, Crabby Appleton, Mr. Instant, Captain Kidney Bean, Sweet Tooth Sam, The Candy Bandit and Isotope Feaney...(and if that isn't enough, the father of renowed cartoonist Kim Deitch) remembered having young Hooker over FOR DINNER and recording him performing 19 songs with an acoustic guitar in 1949. He lugged them around and stored them for fifty years. These precious sounds show John Lee playing the blues standards he started with and fit more at home down south than on Hastings Avenue. They are available on "Jack "0" Diamonds: 1949 Recordings. Boogie Chillen is available wherever you have ears, including virtually every ZZ Top tune. As a further amazing aside, Mr. Deitch also had the foresight to record the mysterous Connie Converse, who has become the latest flame for Doofus Hipsters chasing rare recorded thrills.

Belated congratulations to Mr. Hooker for having his proto-rock-boogie selected into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. Just plain congratulations to Mr. Deitch, who continues to live in Prague at age 84.

NOTE: MIke Baehr at Fantagraphics books points out that Gene Deitch isn't Czech, he merely lives in Prague...and that Mr. Deitch didn't create Krazy Kat, but he did illustrate it.

Lest you think I am one of those right wing lunatics who think the government is taking away our rights by discouraging tobacco, trust I am not. I wish they cost $25 a pack (and I wish they were even more expensive when I was stupid enough to smoke them as a kid) By the way, if you now smoke and don't agree with me...you will. There are only two ways to quit smoking. One...Get so sick you can't smoke. Two...Have a cheese sandwich and 50 sit-ups every time you want one. They both worked for me.

"Perpetually ahead of the collecting curve...a one man Taschen. An authentically curious individual...diligently archiving the forgotten curiosities of American History"

Emma Higgins in Art Hack May 2012

"Jim Linderman likes Art, Antiques and Photography and his collection of Vernacular Photography, Folk Art, Ephemera and Curiosities is a wonderful place..."LifeElsewhere with Norman B. 2014

"...collected over the years by Jim Linderman, a character who seems the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic. Linderman treats collecting like a calling, and his finds have a resulting air of authority, stunning in their capture of bygone picturesque moments."Derek Taylor Dusted

"The pictures, discarded artifacts of ecstatic Americana, come from the stash of Jim Linderman, who in his introduction recalls advice he’s plainly taken to heart: “Collect the heck” out of whatever you find interesting."Drew Jubera Paste Magazine

"His interest in art is rivaled only by his interest in music, and one expression informs the other. He pursues objects with thoroughness and an innate sense of curiosity..."Tanya Heinrich Folk Art Magazine

"Linderman acknowledges the obscure at the same time that he elevates it.... His collections tell vast stories in sotto voce, allowing curios and objects shadowed by mainstream culture and ideology to converse and be heard. What we hear is an enormous American sub-culture speaking in forbidden, marginalized languages: stuff discovered boxed in the attic out of embarrassment or zealotry, smutty ash trays crowing next to religious pamphlets, each claiming a part of the complex, sometimes contradictory, always conflicted American imagination, a chaos of memories that will one day vanish."Joe Bonomo Author of Conversations With Greil Marcus, Jerry Lewis Lost and Found and No Such Thing As Was

"Documenting--one clipping at a time--the scrapbook of a leg and garter aficionado that was dumpster-dived in Virginia in the 60s" "...an outstanding image-archaeologist who has compiled a shelf-ful of worthy and unique photographic histories."William Smith Hang Fire Books

"Linderman has a knack for discovering untold stories and introducing them to a wider audience"Joey Lin Anonymous Works

"Jim Linderman...makes us all look a little puny"Could it be Madness-this?

"...there's something beyond the endless photos and postcards and weird propaganda from another time that he lovingly documents - I think it's the collection as a whole, the portrait of a person fascinated with culture and communication. I have met people like this before, and in reading Dull Tool Dim Bulb I feel I have been lucky enough to meet one more. This site is a goldmine in terms of links..."The Hyggelic Life October 2009

"Linderman is always on the lookout for the new and exciting"Chuck and Jan Rosenak Contemporary American Folk Art

"...an amazing collection..."Revel in New York October 2009

"Jim Linderman has a nice little colllection of interesting books and blogs...But every so often he just loses it."American Digest March 2010

"FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things--unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues-- Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain-- his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten--the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn't for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman-- so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference."

"Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday.""...an excellent writer and I devour your blog daily. I am impressed at your deep knowledge of things within your niche..."John Foster Accidental Mysteries

"I am grateful to Jim Linderman for first alerting me to the existence of the 1930s Spiritualist hymn "Jesus is My Air-o-plane."William Fagaly New Orleans Museum of Art, Author Tools of her Ministry: The art of Sister Gertrude Morgan

"Linderman describes a long gone world...(he) claims not to be a writer but he is most certainly an excellent researcher..."BOOKSTEVE

"Jim Linderman, King of the Internet Ephemeral Arts"Spaniel Rage

"Jim is a fantastic historian...show him some love"Astrid Daley Fringe Pop / Sin-A-Rama

"Almost an experimental narrative"Idiopath

"He came to us with hundreds of jaw-dropping baptism photos that he'd been collecting for 25 years," Ledbetter explains. "By the time he found us, he'd already done half a lifetime's works, and he trusted us to handle it properly." Lance Ledbetter in Creative Loafing 10/13/11

4. It is not in any way replaceable with an uncopyrighted or freely copyrighted image pertinent to the work referenced in the article

The copyright for some images are most likely owned by either the publisher, the writer(s) and/or artist(s) which produced them originally.

Any other uses of this image may be copyright infringement.

Although most of the images here are original photography and objects owned by the author and in the author's personal collection, we cannot absolutely guarantee the exact copyright status of the items or offer written assurance that every or any aspect of this work is completely cleared for all usages. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Any Trademarks used in this item listing are used for strictly descriptive purposes only. No association or endorsement is implied or inferred. No character or trademark ownership is given or implied.

If you are the owner of any aspect of an item which you believe to be copyrighted, please contact us immediately at j.winkel4@gmail.com